Council of Economics Advisers chair Austan Goolsbee went on Jim Cramer’s CNBC show yesterday, and Cramer asked him about TARP. Rather than brag about the “profits” from TARP, Goolsbee mentioned the obvious: it would have been far better if TARP had never been necessary.
Goolsbee says (around 5:30): “I’m happy it paid back the money, but I wouldn’t advertise it like, ‘hey, let’s do that again.’ I wish we’d never had gotten in that spot.” He also claims that the administration imposed tough conditions on the banks and automakers that received TARP funds.
In a way, the administration can’t take too much of the blame for TARP, because it inherited it from the Bush regime. But there has been some triumphalist rhetoric from the White House about TARP. It’s good to see Goolsbee, at least, acknowledge that it wasn’t all fun and games.
